


With Enemies Like These...

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 11:58:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12817053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: They wouldn't dare call it friendship. They were villain kids of The Isle, they simply wouldn't dare. But the day young Mal, Uma, and Jay met young Evie and Carlos on a dirty and dingy beach, something remarkably akin to it did indeed happen.





	With Enemies Like These...

**Author's Note:**

> from an anonymous request on tumblr

“What about this one?”   
  
A tiny young girl named Mal was crouched down in the sand of the shoreline, picking up a small, spiraling seashell that came to a point in between her fingers and holding it up to show it off. Just a couple feet down the trashed and cluttered beach, another young girl looked over her shoulder to see Mal’s find, eyes narrowing as she did.  
  
“ _No_ ,” Uma huffed, clearly annoyed.

When Mal saw the irritation flickering to life across Uma’s features, she smirked evilly.  Overturning an old bottle that was just within her reach, she easily discovered another shell, this one long and thin, marbled with beige and sienna colors.  
  
“This one?” Mal inquired again, still wearing a mischievous grin.  
  
Uma didn’t even know why she bothered looking again, but she did it anyway. Her huff graduated to a bonafide growl.  She wore a necklace, with a very round, golden shell that spiraled like a musical horn dangling from it.  She held the shell up for Mal to see.  
  
“Like  _this_ , you little witch!” Uma snapped.  
  
Mal wasn’t fazed. Rather amused by Uma’s irritation, honestly.  She tossed the long seashell she still held aside and stood up.  
  
“Your mom doesn’t want a shell, Uma.  She’s a sea witch, she’s got plenty of them.”  
  
“Shut up,” Uma grumbled, continuing to dig through the littered sand to find a shell identical to the one on her mother’s necklace.  
  
“I’m just saying,” Mal shrugged.  "When it comes to  _my_  mom it’s usually best to just leave her alone, and I don’t think your mom’s any different.“  
  
"You gonna help me look or not?” Uma demanded.  
  
“I’ll think about it,” Mal kicked over a flattened, soggy cardboard box and watched a crab scuttle out from underneath it.  
  
Uma rolled her eyes.  
  
Their seaside search on the horrid shores of The Isle of the Lost was a fruitless one, as no shell turned out to be the one Uma was looking for and Mal had gotten bored of their endeavor fifteen minutes in.  
  
A ways down the beach, the island’s wharf was playing host to a barge from Auradon, generously dropping off the kingdom’s leftovers for the islanders to scavenge through like rats.  A ways down the beach, the island’s wharf was also playing host to some sort of uproar and commotion; people shouting and yelling, men in royal outfits and colors seen scrambling around the barge.  
  
“Bet you five dollars that’s Jay,” Mal said.  
  
“You don’t have five dollars.”  
  
“I will after I win this bet.”  
  
Uma laughed.  
  
“Let’s go see,” Mal insisted. “Your not-shells will be here when we get back.”  
  
She started to make her way around the larger pieces of trash on the beach, finding her path and tiptoeing expertly through it. Uma followed after her, and they made their way along the shoreline.  They ran into the culprit in question halfway, a kid sporting a red beanie that was a bit too big on him and jingling suspiciously as he ran. He wore a huge grin, and Mal knew that smile anywhere.  
  
“What did you snatch?” she asked.  
  
Jay took off his beanie and turned it out to Mal and Evie, showing off shining badges and pins of all colors and shapes, clearly swiped from the jackets of the Auradon crew on board the barge.  
  
“Nice,” Uma approved, picking out one of the badges and studying it before dropping it back in Jay’s beanie.  
  
Behind him, the voices of the sailors from Auradon rose up again.  
  
“Scatter!” he said quickly, putting his hat back on and pushing Mal and Uma into a run.  
  
The three took cover in the brush of some bluffs until they saw the barge pulling away and heading back for the mainland, and then Jay yanked off his beanie and emptied out his winnings onto the ground.  
  
“Dad’s gonna love this,” he gloated, rubbing his hands together eagerly while his eyes shone with the reflections of the metal.  "You girls want one?“  
  
Uma didn’t have to be asked twice, she already had her eyes on a badge of shining gold, a ship pierced through on both sides by cutlasses as its bow broke through ocean waves.  She picked it out and pocketed it, thinking if the search for the shell failed, this at least might interest her mother.  Mal didn’t have quite so simple a time making a decision, peering intently at her friend’s offerings. There was one a deep, sapphire blue—a globe flanked by two seahorses—that caught her eye for a moment. She liked the color of it. But there was another one, a diamond with a pair of dragon’s wings, and one that was a crown overlaid on top of an anchor.  She had an eye for all of them.  
  
"What do they even need all these stupid badges for anyway?” Mal asked, leaning back and resting her hands on the ground.  
  
“They don’t,” Jay picked up the sapphire globe Mal was favoring among the others and tried to polish it extra shiny with his shirt.  "That’s why I took ‘em.“  
  
"When I have my own pirate crew, we won’t wear any dumb badges,” Uma haughtily said.  
  
“Uma, how are you going to have a pirate crew?” Jay asked.  
  
“You can’t  _go_  anywhere,” Mal finished for him.  "You’re stuck inside this barrier just like the rest of us.“  
  
"I’ll find a way out.”  
  
“Like how my mother and every other villain on The Isle have tried to find a way out? Good luck.”  
  
“Alright Mal, that’s it! You ain’t get to be part of my crew!” Uma glared daggers at her.  
  
“You’re already part of  _my_ crew!  You can’t just run off and make your own crew, that’s mutiny!” Mal yelled.  
  
Uma abruptly stood up, starting to storm off away from the bluffs and in the direction of the beach.  
  
“What are you doing??” Mal demanded.  
  
“Looking for a plank so you can go walk it!”  
  
Jay wore an amused smile at his friends’ bickering, watching avidly as Mal stood too and followed Uma, not about to let her have the last word. In fact, both halves of the pair had several words after that, arguing back and forth with Jay’s highly entertained laughter just a few feet behind them.  
  
A frantic scream just then turned all three of their heads in time to see a small, lanky boy tumbling wildly down the bluffs, kicking up dirt and sand as he did so, and a girl with blue hair daintily yet urgently trailing after him on her feet.  Both of them around the kids’ ages, both of them in turn being chased by a tall boy brandishing a hook and a wicked smile.  The lanky one came to a stop at the base of the dunes, rolling into some trash, and the girl ran to check on him, crouching down and making sure he wasn’t hurt.  
  
Uma smiled, dropping her beef with Mal to saunter over to the taller boy, who had stopped to loom menacingly before the kids on the ground.  
  
“Whatcha got here, Harry?” she asked, standing at his side and playfully eyeing the cowering boy and girl.  
  
“Just a little game I’m playing,” Harry grinned.  
  
The blue haired girl rose to her feet, standing protectively in front of the other kid with a hard set to her eyes.  
  
“Leave us alone!” she said.  
  
Mal and Jay moved to stand with Uma and Harry as well, four against two.  Mal watched the other girl, not wavering in the slightest as she was faced with the most feared seven and eight year olds on The Isle.  
  
“What’s the game?” Uma wondered.  
  
“Dunno yet. Let’s call it…pin the hook in the sea urchins.”  
  
He raised the glinting metal in his hand.  
  
“Leave them alone, Harry,” Mal suddenly said, eyes locked on the girl across the way and repeating her words.  
  
Uma frowned.  
  
“Say what?”  
  
Uma turned to look at Mal, who was still looking at the girl.  She, unfortunately, knew that expression on Mal’s face entirely too well, the determination and digging in of her heels, the refusal to let anyone but herself get their way. Uma didn’t understand it, but she didn’t fight it.  
  
“…Get lost, Harry,” she grudgingly said.  
  
Surprise was a strange look on young Harry’s face, but he wore it nonetheless.  
  
“I said scram!” Uma repeated, jabbing her thumb in the opposite direction.  
  
Harry hesitated, scowling, but let his scowl melt into a crooked sneer as he took a single step forward and bowed at the two lost kids in front of him.  
  
“Until next time,” he promised.  
  
Then he turned and left, shoving past Jay and the girls and disappearing up the bluffs. Uma narrowed her eyes at Mal.  
  
“You’re crazy, you know that?”  
  
Mal ignored her, walking forward and studying the girl with the blue hair and the boy behind her feet.    
  
“Hey,” she said sharply, shoving her hands in her jacket pockets.  "You’re the Devil Woman’s kid, aren’t you?“  
  
Slowly, the boy rose from the ground, brushing grit off his clothes and out of his hair.  
  
”…Her name is Cruella.  And mine’s Carlos,“ he timidly said, eyes wary.  
  
"You know who we are?” Jay asked.  
  
Carlos carefully nodded.  
  
“And who’s the princess?” Uma chided, noting the mystery girl all dolled up in a tidy skirt and perfect hair.  
  
“I don’t…actually know,” Carlos said, glancing at her too.  
  
“Evie,” the girl introduced herself.  "The Evil Queen’s daughter.“  
  
Mal circled around Evie and Carlos like a shark, herding them in closer together.  
  
"And what did you guys do to get on Harry Hook’s bad side?” she asked.  
  
Jay laughed, crossing his arms.   
  
“You kidding? All you have to do is breathe funny and you’re on Harry Hook’s bad side.”  
  
“I didn’t do anything,” Carlos answered defensively.  "I was minding my own business when Harry came up and started picking on me.“  
  
"Sounds about right,” Uma chuckled, her and Mal exchanging a nod.  
  
“It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, except this girl saw him messing with me from across the marketplace and threw an apple at his head,” Carlos pointed at Evie.  
  
“How dumb do you have to be to throw an apple at Harry Hook?” Jay mocked.  
  
“Or how tough do you have to be,” Mal added.  
  
Uma’s eyes glittered suspiciously.  
  
“Yeah…tough,” she said quietly, before striding forward and coming to a stop right in front of Evie.  "Takes guts to mess with Harry.  I like guts.  I’m starting a pirate crew, and I want you on it, princess.“  
  
"You can’t start a pirate crew!” Mal curled her hands into fists.  
  
Evie shook her head, stepping away.  
  
“I’m not a pirate,” she told Uma.  
  
“You don’t even have a boat!” Mal went on in the background.  
  
“Ship,” Uma corrected.  
  
“…No thank you, either way,” Evie took Carlos by the arm and started to lead him away from the others.  
  
Uma held up a hand, the gesture enough to stop Evie and Carlos in their tracks.  
  
“Check this out,” she smiled.  "Either you hang with us, or I turn around and call Harry back here.“  
  
Carlos’ frightened eyes went wide, and Evie’s lip stuck out in a pout.  
  
"We won’t bite,” Mal said evilly.  
  
“We’re all pals here,” Jay teasingly said.  
  
“We’re all villain kids,” Mal added.  "You heard Uma, it’s either us or Harry.“  
  
Evie didn’t seem like she was about to back down anytime soon, but Carlos hung his head defeatedly.  
  
”…I don’t want it to be Harry,“ he said.  
  
"Smart kid,” Mal nodded.  "Let’s go, guys.“  
  
They were all right on her heels as she led the way down the beach; Jay, Uma, Carlos, and Evie.  
  
”…Uh, so, what do we do now?“ Carlos asked, leaning around Evie’s shoulder.  
  
"Whatever we want!” Jay bounded ahead, beanie jingling and jangling as he kicked up sand with excited “woo!"s.  
  
"The beach is ours, VKs,” Mal threw her arms wide and gestured to the shoreline around them, turning around and walking backwards to face the others.  
  
“…We could build sandcastles!” Evie suggested, eyes lighting up and her voice putting extra emphasis on the “castle” part of “sandcastles”.  
  
Mal scrunched up her nose.  
  
“Or we could  _not_.”  
  
“Well what else is there to do on a beach?” Evie pouted again.  
  
Carlos kicked some trash out of his path.  
  
“Especially a beach as crummy as this one.”  
  
As they walked on, Uma spotted a long, crooked branch laying half-buried in the sand.  She scampered right over, freeing it with a tug.  
  
“Pirate practice!” she said excitedly, immediately whacking Jay with the stick.  
  
“Hey!” Jay yelped.  
  
Mal’s eyes quickly picked out another branch, and she claimed it for her own, leaping to Jay’s defense.  
  
“En garde!” she yelled.  
  
She and Uma played in their little swordfight, slowly but surely bringing shy smiles to Evie’s and Carlos’ faces.  Mal quickly descended into cheating, whapping at Uma’s feet again and again with her makeshift sword and watching her leap back with each strike.  
  
“Hey, don’t just stand there!” Uma yelled to Evie.  
  
“She’s on my side now!” Mal said triumphantly, swatting Uma’s toes.  
  
Carlos was mustering up the courage to play, and out of the corner of her eye Mal saw him sneaking up on them.  
  
“Get her, Evie!” Mal tossed the branch to Evie and ran to tackle Carlos into the ground, drawing the attention of Jay, who couldn’t resist a good dogpile.  
  
That’s how they stayed for a while, Mal and the boys in a free-for-all brawl, Evie and Uma fighting with their 'swords’.  Carlos’ scraggly scream was their signal to pack it in, and the three of them sat back in the sand, breathing hard and grins plastered across Jay’s face and Mal’s.  Evie looked over when they stopped wrestling, and Uma, in a rare and uncharacteristic moment of good sportsmanship, decided not to smack her when she wasn’t looking.  
  
“…You guys are  _a mess_ ,” Evie said disapprovingly, seeing the three of them absolutely coated in sand; clothes, hair, everything.  
  
She dropped her branch to the ground and went over to Carlos first, lifting a hand and brushing out the sand hidden in his white hair.  
  
“You should get cleaned up,” she pointed to the sea and its gently lapping waves.  
  
“Nothing wrong with a little dirt,” Jay took off his beanie and shook out his hair.  
  
“Mal?” Evie prodded.  
  
“Me? No, heck no.  No way,” Mal quickly said.  
  
Evie looked confused.  
  
“You can’t go home and let your mom see you like that.”  
  
“I’m fine! Nothing wrong with the way I look! The messier the better!” Mal roughly shook her fingers through her purple hair to get the sand out.  
  
Evie’s perplexed expression didn’t falter.  
  
“Mal can’t swim,” Uma idly said, holding her pretend sword in one hand while she examined the nails on her other.  
  
“Uma!!” Mal hissed.  
  
“You’re best friends with the daughter of the sea witch, how do you not know how to swim?” Carlos asked.  
  
“I dunno, how come I hear you’re afraid of  _dogs_ , pint size?!”  
  
Mal lunged at him, not playfully this time, but Jay caught her by the collar of her jacket and held her back.  
  
“…It’s okay to not know how to swim, Mal,” Evie gently said.  
  
“Pathetic, actually.  We live on an island,” Uma deadpanned.  
  
Evie’s lips formed that already-trademark pout.  
  
“You’re not helping,” she chided. “Mal, do you want to learn how to swim?”  
  
“Sure don’t,” Mal stood up and stormed off a little ways away.  
  
Evie turned herself so she could follow Mal’s movements.  
  
“That’s okay. You don’t have to know how to swim,” Evie assured her.  
  
“She does if she’s gonna be part of my crew,” Uma said.  
  
“I don’t wanna be part of your crew!” Mal argued.  "I’m gonna have my own gang, and we’re gonna take over the world!“  
  
Carlos risked the wrath of Mal to ask another question.  
  
"Why would you want to take over the world?”  
  
Mal didn’t answer right away.  
  
“Because it’s what my mom says we have to do,” she eventually grumbled.  
  
Silence settled heavily among the VKs just then, the kids exchanging indiscernible looks with each other.  
  
“…Mom wants me to wash dishes.  Scrub pots.  Wait tables,” Uma grimly said, kicking the sand under her feet.  
  
The other VKs looked to her, stone silent.  Carlos raised his little hand.  
  
“…My mom needs a personal stylist.  And a fur groomer.  And a bear trap oiler,” his voice was small.  
  
Jay chuckled.  
  
“Pop’s store is where it’s at.  Gotta push the merchandise.  Then snatch it back,” he told the others.  "Over and over again.“  
  
Evie summoned up a smile.  
  
"Well my mom only wants the very best for me.  She’ll have me marry a prince, and away to his castle we’ll go.  We’ll live happily ever after in more rooms than mother can count, and I’ll never want for anything again, just as long as I stay beautiful and obedient.”  
  
Mal rolled her eyes.  
  
“Well lucky you,” she viciously sneered.  
  
Evie’s smile faltered.  
  
“…Yeah.  Lucky me,” she quietly repeated.  
  
She glanced at the suddenly despondent faces around her, never knowing kids like Mal and Uma could wear those kinds of expressions.  
  
“…Forget it you guys, let’s just go play some more,” Evie suggested.  
  
And so they did.  
  
Mal gave in, pushed aside some trash so she and Evie could build a sandcastle, later adorned with a twig-and-leaf flag from Carlos.  Jay came around to stomp the thing into the ground, thinking it would earn him praise from Mal, but instead was met with a tackle into a face-full of beach when Mal saw and heard the distressed gasp the destruction of the castle wrenched from Evie.  He petulantly apologized, and with Mal holding him by the ear, offered Evie a few of the badges from inside his beanie to decorate the sandcastle with when it was rebuilt.  
  
Uma dragged (literally) Carlos along with her as she traversed the beach in search of critters, uncovering clams and crabs and repeatedly daring Carlos to stick his finger in a pincer.  Bored of Mal playing so much with Evie, Uma contemplated chucking a clam shell down the beach at her, but grudgingly decided to just leave it alone.  
  
They raced, Uma and Jay versus Mal and Carlos, with Evie as the judge because a princess such as herself didn’t run. They drew pictures in the sand, threw rocks into the ocean, dug holes in the beach, Uma organized a treasure hunt through the litter (which Evie again relegated herself to sitting back and judging), and then the wannabe pirate got Carlos to let himself be buried in the sand.  
  
They came together in another seashell search, Uma leading the charge as they quested up and down the beach for the perfect offering for Ursula.  Mal still got her kicks by finding the most wildly off-target shells to run past her friend with sarcastic inquiries of “how about this one?”  
  
Before any of them knew it, the sun was setting, and the empty beach grew dark. Together, Jay and Carlos picked up armfuls of driftwood under the last rays of light; gathering the wood in a big pile, the little VKs sat in a circle around it as Carlos lit it ablaze with one of his mother’s lighters.  Evie looked out among the sea as the sun finally disappeared beneath the horizon, wondering what it would be like to see stars.  
  
“…Thanks for rescuing us from Harry,” Carlos broke the silence they all sat in.  
  
“Drop the thank yous,” Jay said.  
  
“We don’t do 'em,” Uma scowled.  
  
“Because we’re rotten,” Mal finished.  
  
“You don’t seem so rotten,” Evie smiled at her.  "…You seem like a friend.“  
  
”…I could use some friends. VKs gotta stick together, right?“ Carlos’ smile was careful and cautious.  
  
Jay punched his shoulder.  
  
"Villains don’t have friends,” Mal reprimanded him.  "Villains don’t need friends.  But I’ll give you guys a trial run in my gang. If you’re not useless, you get to stay.“  
  
"Carlos here looks pretty shifty,” Jay ruffled the boy’s hair, much to his dismay. “Sneaky and quick, we could put him to use stealing.”  
  
“And the princess has the pretty face,” Uma looked to Evie.  "Bet she could charm us out of all sorts of trouble.“  
  
"I  _am_ full of charm,” Evie held her head up proudly.  
  
“Then you guys are in,” Mal said. “You mess this up?  We feed you to Harry Hook.”  
  
Mal daringly held her hand out over the top of the bonfire, heat and flames lapping dangerously close to her fingers. Uma didn’t hesitate, putting her hand on top of Mal’s and daring the fire as well.  Then there was Jay, unperturbed by the danger, easily sliding his hand into place on top of Uma’s and Mal’s.  Evie was next, and last but not least, Carlos, moving slowly and eyeing the fire as if he thought he might be falling prey to some sort of trick.  
  
“When I say we’re rotten, you guys say 'to the core’,” Mal instructed.  "Evie and Carlos, you gotta show you have what it takes to hang with us.  We have a reputation to keep, we gotta teach The Isle that no one messes with a VK if they know what’s good for them. 'Cuz we’re rotten.“  
  
"To the core,” the other four chorused.  
  
Mal wore a triumphant smirk, and the gang drew their hands back to their sides, basking in the heat of the fire. Evie leaned back in the sand, resting on her hands, until her fingers felt something small and smooth peeking up from where it was buried under the grains.  She turned and dug with her thumb, uncovering a round and perfectly spiraled seashell.  
  
“Uma!  Look!!” Evie said excitedly, holding it up for everyone to see.  
  
An exact replica of the golden shell dangling from Uma’s neck.  The young girl’s eyes went wide, and she took the shell from Evie when Evie reached out across the fire to hand it to her.  
  
“Evie’s got an eye for treasure,” Mal noted, impressed.  "Definitely useful.“  
  
Evie smiled proudly, reveling in the praise.  
  
A quiet "thank you” was fighting its way to Uma’s lips, but with their talk just minutes ago, Uma fought it back.  
  
“Way to go, princess,” she said instead, keeping the shell held in her fist, not risking losing it in her pockets.  
  
For a little bit longer they just sat and talked, warming themselves, listening to the waves, casting the occasional glance at the clouded-over sky; Evie especially holding on to some small shred of hope that she might see a star. They didn’t know how much time was passing, but for the most part they didn’t care, until Jay gave Carlos and Evie shoves before standing up and stretching.  
  
“Come on, let’s get you two home before your moms lose it.”  
  
Carlos and Evie rose to their feet, Mal and Uma with them.  Jay kicked some sand over the dwindling flames of the fire, and then their beach went dark.  
  
Sticking close together, the VKs carefully picked their way around the clutter and walked a path up the bluffs. Evie stumbled for a second, but Mal caught her by the hand. Little Carlos, with his skinny legs, found himself struggling up a particularly steep angle until Jay grabbed him and gave him a boost, which Uma pulled him up from.  
  
Sticking close together, the VKs left their day at the beach behind, and moving as one, headed for home.


End file.
